145

There ftood a window near, whence looking down
From o'er the porch appear'd the subject town.
A double ftrength of valves fecur'd the place,
A high and narrow, but the only pais:
The cautious king, with all-preventing care,
To guard that outlet, plac'd Eumæus there:
When Agelaus thus: Has none the fenfe
To mount yon window, and alarm from thence
The neighbour-town? The town fhall force the door,
And this bold archer foon fhall fhoot no more.
Melanthius then: That outlet to the gate
So near adjoins that one may guard the strait.
But other methods of defence remain,
Myfelf with arms can furnish all the train;
Stores from the royal magazine I bring.
And their own darts fhall pierce the prince and king.
He faid; and, mounting up the lotty fairs,
Twelve fhields, twelve lances, and twelve helmets
bears:

All arm, and fudden round the hall appears
A blaze of bucklers, and a wood of fpears.
The hero ftands oppreft with mighty woe,
On every fide he fees the labour grow:
Oh curft event! and, oh! unlook'd for aid!
Melanthius, or the woman have betray'd-
Oh, my dear fon the father with a figh!
Then ceas'd; the flial virtue made reply:

155

160

165

170

Falfhood is folly, and 'tis juft to own The fault committed; this was mine alone; My hafte neglected yonder door to bar, And hence the villain has fupply'd their war. Run, good Eumæus, then, and (what before I thoughtless err'd in) well fecure that door : Learn, if by female fraud this deed were done, Or (as my thought mifgives) by Dolius' fon. 175 While yet they spoke, in queft of arms again, To the high chamber ftole the faithlefs fwain, Not unobferv'd, Eumeus watchful ey'd, And thus addrefs'd Ulyffes near his de:

The mifcreant we fufpected takes that way; Him, if this arm be powerful, fhall I flay? Or drive him hither to receive the meed From thy own hand, of this detefted deed? Not fo (reply'd Ulysses) leave him there, For us fufficient is another care : Within the ftru&ture of this palace wall To keep enclo s'd his mafters till they fall. Go you, and feize the felon, backward bind His arms and legs, and fix a plank behind; On this his body by ftrong cords extend And on a column near the roof suspend ! So itudy'd tortures his vile days shall end.

181

185

190

The ready fwains obey'd with joyful haste, Behind the felon un perceiv'd they pafs'd, As round the room in queft of arms he goes 195 (The half-fhut door conceal'd his lurking foes): One hand fuftain'd a helm, and one the fhield Which old Laertes wont in youth to wield, Cover'd with duft, with drynefs chapt and worn, The brafs corroded and the leather torn: Thus laden, o'er the threshold as he stepp'd, Fierce on the villain from each fide they leap'd, Back by the hair the trembling daftard drew, And down reluctant on the pavement threw, Active and pleas'd the zealous fwains full At every point their mafler's rigid will;

200

205

220

This faid, they left him, tortur'd as he lay, Secur'd the door, and hafty firode away: Each, breathing death, refum'd his dangerous poft Near great Ulyffes; four against an hoft. When, lo! defcending to our hero's aid Jove's daughter Pallas, War's triumphant Maid In Mentor's friendly form the join'd his fide; Ulyffes faw, and thus with transport cry'd :

Come, ever welcome, and thy fuccour lend: Oh, every facred name in one! my friend! 226 Early we lov'd, and long our loves have grown: Whate'er through life's whole feries I have done, Cf good, or grateful, now to mind recall, And, aiding this one hour, repay it all.

230

Thus he; but pleasing hopes his bosom warm Of Pallas latent in the friendly form. The adverfe hoft the phantom warrior ey❜d, And firft, loud threat'ning, Agelaüs cry'd:

236

Mentor, beware! nor let that tongue perfuade
Thy frantic arm to lend Ulyffes aid;
Our force fuccefsful fhall our threat make good,
And with the fire's and fon's commix thy blood.
What hop'it thou here? Thee first the sword fall
flay,

Then lop thy whole pofterity away;
Far hence thy banisl 'd confort shall we fend;
With his thy forfeit lands and treasures blend;
Thus, and thus only, fhalt thou join thy friend.
His barbarous infult ev'n the Goddefs fires,
Who thus the warrior to revenge infpires:

240

245

Art thou Ulyffes? Where then fall we find The patient body and the conftant mind? That courage, once the Trojans daily dread, Known nine long years, and felt by heroes dead? And where that conduct, which reveng'd the luft Of Priam's race, and la'd proud Troy in duft? If this, when Helen was the caufe, were done? What for thy country now, thy queen, thy fon? Rife then in combat, at my fide attend; Cbferve what vigour gratitude can lend, 255 And foes how weak, oppos'd against a friend! She spoke; but, willing longer to furvey The fire and fon's great acts, withheld the day; By further toils decreed the brave to try, And level pois'd the wings of victory: Then in a change of form cludes their fight, Perch'd like a swallow on a rafter's height, And unperceiv'd enjoys the rifing fght.

260

265

Damafto's fon, bold Agelaüs, leads The guilty war; Eurynomus fucceeds; With thefe, Pifander, great PolySor's fon. Sage Polybus, and ftern Amphimedon, With Demoptolemus. thefe fix furvive; The best of all, the fhafts had left alive. Amidft the cairage defperate as they fand, 270 Thus Agelaüs rous'd the lagging band.

275

280

The hour is come, when yon fierce man no more With bleeding pinces fhall beftrow the floor. Lo! Mentor laves him with an empty boast; The four remain, but four against an hoft. Let each at once difcharge the deadly dart, One fure of fix fhall reach Ulyffes' heart: The reft muft perish, their great leader flain; Thus fall one ftroke he glory loft regain. Then all at once their mingled lances threw, And thirsty all of one man's blood they flew; In vain! Minerva turn'd them with her breath, And scatter'd fhort, or wide, the points of death; With deaden'd found, one on the threshold falls, One frikes the gate, one rings against the walls; The form pafs'd innocent. The godlike man Now loftier trod, and dreadful thus began: 'Tis now (brave friends) ourturn, at once to throw (So ipeed them Heaven) our javelins at the foe. That impious race to all their pafs'd mifdeeds Would add our blood. Injustice still proceeds, He spoke at once their fiery lances flew : Great Demoptolemus Ulytes flew; Euryades receiv'd the prince's dart; The goatherd's quiver'd in Pifander's heart; Fierce Elatus by thine, Eumæus, falls;

:

306

311

Their fall in thunder echoes round the walls. 296 The rok retreat: the victors now advance, Each from the dead refumes his bloody lance, Again the foe difcharge the fteely shower; Again made fruitrate by the Virgin-power. Some, turn'd by Pallas, on the threshold fall; 301 Some wound the gate, fome ring against the wall; Some weak, or ponderous with the brazen head, Drop harmlefs on the pavement founding dead. The bold Amphimedon his javelin caft; Thy hand, Telemachus, it lightly raz'd: And from Ctefippus' arm the fpear elanc'd On good Eumæus' fhield and shoulder glanc'd : Not leffen'd of their force (fo flight the wound) Each fung along, and dropp d upon the ground. Fate doom'd the next, Eurydamus, to bear The death, ennobled by Ulyffes? fpear. By the bold fon Amphimedon was flain: And Polybus renown'd the faithful fwain, Pierc'd through the breast the rude Ctefippus bled And thus Philætius gloried o'er the dead. 316 There end thy pompous vaunts and high difOh! sharp in scandal, voluble, and vain! [dain; How weak is mortal pride! To Heaven alone Th' event of actions and our fates are known; Scoffer, behold what gratitude we bear: The victim's heel is anfwer'd with this fpear. Ulyffes brandish'd high his vengeful steel, And Damaftordes that inftant fell; Faft-by Leocritus expiring lay, The prince's javelin tore its bloody way Through all his bowels: down he tumbles prone, His batter'd font and brains befmear the ftone. Now Pallas fhines confefs'd! aloft she spreads The arm of vengeance o'er their guilty heads; The dreadful regis blaze in their eye; Amaz'd they fee, they tremble, and they fly: Confus'd, diftracted, through the rooms they

fling,

321

326

341

Not half fo keen fierce vultures of the chafe
Stoop from the mountains on the feather'd race,
When, the wide field extended fnares befet, 348
With conscious dread they fhun the quivering net
No help, no flight: but, wounded every way,
Headlong they drop: the fowlers seize the prey.
On all fides thus they double wound on wound,
In proftrate heaps the wretches beat the ground,
Unmanly fhrieks precede each dying groan, 354
And a red deluge floats the reeking ftone.

Leindes frft before the victor falls;
The wretched augur thus for mercy calls:
Oh gracious hear! nor let thy fupppliant bleed:
Still undishonour'd, or by word or deed, 359
Thy houfe, for me, remains; by me reprefs'd
Full oft was check'd th' injuftice of the reft:
Averfe they heard me when I counsell'd well.
Their hearts were harden'd, and they juftly fel.
Oh! fpare an augur's confecrated head,
Nor add the blameless to the guilty dead!

364

369

Prieft as thou art! for that detefted band Thy lying prophecies deceiv'd the land: Agait Ulyffes have thy vows been made, For them, thy daily orifons were paid: Yet more, ev'n to our bed thy pride afpires: One common crime one common fate requires. Thus fpealing, from the ground the fword he took

Which Agelaüs' dying hand forfook;

33.

Full through his neck the weighty faulchion fped:
Along the pavement roll'd the muttering head.
Phemius alone the hand of vengeance fpar'd,
十
Phemius the fweet, the Heaven-inftructed bard.
Befide the gate the reverend minstrel stands;
The lyre, now filent, trembling in his hands;
Dubious to fupplicate the chief, or fly
To Jove's inviolable altar nigh,
Where oft Laertes holy vows had paid,
And oft Uly es fmoking victims laid.
His honour'd harp with care he firft fet down,
Between the laver and the filver throne;
Then proftrate ftretch'd before the dreadful man,
Perfuave, thus with accent foft began;

383

388

O king! to mercy be thy foul inclin❜d,
And fpare the poet's ever-gentle kind;
A deed like this thy future fame would wrong;
For dear to Gods and men is facred fong.
Self-taught I fing; by Heaven, and Heaven alone,
The genuine feeds of poefy are fown;
395
And (what the Gods beflow) the lofty lay,
The Gods alone, and godlike worth, we pay.
Save then the poet, and thyfelf reward;
'Tis thine to merit, mine is to record.

That here I fung, was force, and not defire; 393
This hand reluctant touch'd the warbling wire;
And let thy fon atteft, nor fordid pay,
Nor fervile flattery, ftain'd the moral lay.

403

The moving words Telemachus attends, His fire approaches, and the bard defends. Oh! mix rot, Father, with thofe impious dead The man divine; forbear that facred head! Medon, the herald, too our arms may fpare, Medon, who made my infancy his care; If yet he breathes, permit thy fon to give Thus much to gratitude, and bid him live. Beneath a table, trembling with difmay, Couch'd clofe to earth unhappy Medon lay, 002

409

430

Mean while Ulys fearcn'd the dome, to find
I yet there live or all th' orending Vind.
Not one! complete the bloody tale he found,
All steep'd in blood, all ga ping on the ground.
So when, by hollow 4 ore, the fher traia 435
Sweep with their arching nets the boary main,
And force the methy toils the copious draught
contain,

All natedo, their element, and bare,
The fies pa tand gap in thinner air;
Wide or the ia ds are fpread the fiffening prey,
Till the warm fu exhales their foul away. 330

And now the i gcommands his fon to call
Old Eorylat the deathul all:
The fon bf rvat ot a mo nest ftays:

The aged govor efs with peed obeys:

445

The founding portals in. aut they difplay;
The matro Loves, the prince directs the way.
On heapsf death the tter Ulyfles food,,
All black with duft, and cover'd thick with lood.
So the grim lion from the fiat ghter comes, 450
Dreadful he glares, and terribly he foams,
Eis breaft with marks of carnage painted o'er,
His jaws all dropping with the bull's black gore.
Soon as her eyes the welcome object met,
The guilty all, the mighty deed complete ;
A feream of joy her feeble voice e ay'd,
The hero chick'd her, and compos'dly faid-
Woman, experienc'd as thou art, control
Indece tiny, and feat thy fecret foul.
T'infult the dead, is cruel and unjust;
Fate and their crime have funk them to the duft.
Nor heeded the 'e the cenf. re of mankind.
The good and bad wer equal in their mind.
July the price of worthleffhefs they paid,
And each now was an unlamented hade.
But thou, incere, O Eurycl a! fay
What maids di onour us, and what obey?

Then the: In thefe thy kingly walls remain
(My fon) full fifty of the handmaid train,
Taught by my care to cull the fleece, or weave,
And fervitude with plea' ng tak deceive;
Of thefe, twice fix purfve their wicked way,
Nor me, nor chafte Penelope obey;
Nor fits it that Telemachus command
(Young as he is) his mother's female band.

460

465

470

475

Hence to the upper chambers let me fly,
Where flumbers feft now clofe the royal eye;
There wake her with the news-the matron
cry.

Not fo, (Ulyles more fedate reply'd)
Bring first the crew who wrought thefe guilty
deeds:
480
In hafte the matron parts; the king proceeds:
Now to difpofe the dead, the care r mains
To you, my fon, and you, my faithful wains;
Th' offending females to that task we doom,
To wash, to fcent, and purify the room.
Thefe (every table claas'd, and every throne,
And all the melancholy labour done)
Drive to you cout, without the palace wall,
There the revenging word shall finite them all;
So with the fuitors let them mix in duft,
Stretch'd in a long oblivion of their luft.

486

490

He faid: the lamentable trai. appear, Each vects a groan, a. d drops a tender tear; Fach heav'd her ournful burthen, and beneath The porch, depos'd the ghaitly heaps of death, The chief fevere, compelling each to move, Urg'd the dire talk imperious from above. With thirty sponge they rub the tables o'er, (The fwains unite their toil) the walls, the [gore. 1 Wa^'d with th' effufive wave, are purg'd of) Once more the palace fet in fair array,

foor,

To the bafe court the females talo their way; There compafs'd clofe between the dome and wall, (Their life's laft fcene) they trembling wait their

fall.

305

Then thus the prince: To the fe fhall we afford A fate fo pure a by the martial fword! To thefe, the nightly profitutes to fame, And bale revilers of our house and ame?

Thus fpeaking, on the circling wall he ftrung
| A fhip's tough cable, from a column hung;
Near the high top he firain'd it strongly round,
Whence no contending foot could reach the ground.
Their head above connected in a row,

They beat the air with quivering feet below: 515
Thus, or fome tree hung ftruggling in the fnare,
The deves or thrufhes flap their wings in air.
Soon fed the foul impure, a. d leit behind
The empty cor e to waver with the wind.

Then forth they led Melanthius, and began
Tair bloody work: they lopp'd away the man,
Morfel for dogs! then trimm'd with brazen heers
The wretch, and forten'd of his nofe and ears;
His hands and feet lait Telt the cruel steel :
He rear'd, and torme its gave his foul to hell-
They wash, and to Ulyffes take their way ; 226
So ends the bloody bui nefs of the day.

To Euryclea then addrefs'd the sing:
Bring hither fire, and hither fulphur bring,
To purge the palace: then, the queen attend,
And let her with her matron-train defcend;
The matron-train, with all the virgin-band,
A Temble here to learn their lord's command.
Then Euryclea: Joyful I obey,

But caft thofe mean dif oneft rags away:
Permit me firft the royal robes to bring:
Illuits this garb the shoulders of a king.

535

1

She hears and at the word obedient flies,

With ure and fulphur, cure of noxious fumes,
He purged the wails, and blood-polluted rooms.
Again the matron fprings with eager pace,
And fpreads her lord's return from place to place. |

ftand

A gazing throng, a torch in every hand.
They faw, they knew him, and with fond embrace
Each humbly kifs'd his knee, or hand, or face;
He knows them all; in all fuch truth appears,
Ev'n he indulges the fweet joy of tears.

15

Ah! whither wanders thy diftemper'd mind?
The righteous Powers, who tread the ftarry skies,
The weak enlighter, and confound the wife,
And human thought with unrefifted sway,
Deprefs or raife, enlarge or take away:
Truth, by their high decree, thy voice forfakes,
And folly, with the tongue of Wifdom, fpeaks:
Unkind, the fond illufon to impose !
Was it to flatter or deride my woes?
Never did I a feep fo fweet enjoy,
Since my dear lord left Ithaca for Troy,
Why must I wake to grieve; and curfe thy fhore,
O Troy !—may never tongue pronounce thee
more!

Be gone: another might have felt our rage,
But age is facred, and we fpare thy age.

20

25

To whom with warmth: My foul a lie disdains; Ulyffes lives, thy own Ulyffes reigns : That firanger, patient o' the fuitors' wrongs, And the rude licence of ungovern'd tongues, 30 He, he is thine. Thy fon his latent guest Long knew, but lock'd the fecret in his breaft; With well-concreted art to end his woes, And ourit at once in vengeance on the foes. While yet he spoke, the queen in tranfport Sprung

35

Swift from the couch, and round the matron hung;
Faft from her eye defcends the rolling tear,
Say, once more fay, is my Ulyffes here?

40

46

How could that numerous and outrageous band
By one be flain, though by an hero's hand?
I faw it not, the cries, but heard alone,
When death was bufy, a loud dying groan;
The damfel-train turn'd pale at every wound,
Immur'd we fate, and catch'd each paffing found;
When death had feiz'd her prey thy fon attends,
And at his nod the damfel-train defcends;
There terrible i arns Ulyffes flood,
And the dead fuitors almoft fwam in blood;
Thy heart had leap'd, the hero to furvey,
Stern as the furly lion o'er his prey,
Glorious in gore now with fulphureous fires
The dome he purges, now the flame afpires:
Heap'd lie the dead without the palace walls,-
Hafte, daughter, hafte, thy own Ulyffes calls!
Thy every with, the bounteous Gods bestow, 55
Enjoy the prefent good, and former woe;
Ulyffes lives, his vanquifi'd foes to fee;
He lives to thy Telamachus and thee!

50

Ah! no; with fghs Penelope rejoin'd, Excefs of joy difturbs thy wandering mind; 60 How blefs'd this happy hour, fhould he appear, Dear to us all, to me fupremely dear!

Ah! no; fome God the fuitors' deaths decreed, Some God defcends, and by his hand they bleed; Blind! to contemn the ftranger's righteous cause, And violate all hofpitable laws!

66

The good they hated, a d the Powers defy'd;
But Heaven is juft, and by a God they dy'd,
For never muft Ulyes view this fhore
Never! the lov'd Ulyffes is no more:
What words (the matron cries) have reach'd my
ears?

70

Doubt we his prefence, when he now appears?
Then hear conviction: Ere the fatal day
That fore d Ulyffes o'er the watery way,
A boar fierce-rufhing in the fylvan war
Plough'd half this thigh; I faw, I faw the fear,
And wild with tranfpert had reveal'd the wound;
But ere I fpoke, he rofe, and check'd the found.

75

The monarch, by a ecluma high enthron'd,
His eye withdrew, and fx'd it on the ground; 95
Curious to hear his queen the flence break:
Amaz'd fhe fate, and impotent to speak;
O'er all the man her eyes fhe rolls in vain,
Now hopes, now fears, now knows, then doubts
again.

100

At length Telemachus-Ch! who can find
A woman like Penelope unkind?
Why thus in filence! why with winning charms
Thus flow, to fly wit. rapture to his arms?
Stubborn the breaft that with no tranfport glows,
When twice ten years are pafs'd of mighty woes;
To foftnefs loft, to fpoufal love unknown,
The Gods have form'd that rigid heart of stone!
O my Telemachus! the queen rejoin'd,
Diftracting fears confound my labouring mind;
Powerless to fpeal, I fcarce uplift my eyes,
Nor dare to question; doubts on doubts arife.
Oh! deig he, if Ulyffes, to remove
Thefe boding thought, and what he is, to prove!
Pleas'd with her virtuous fears, the king replies,
Indulge, my fon, the cautions of the wife; 115
Time all the truth to fure remembrance bring:
This garb of poverty belies the king:

110

121

No more. This day our deepest care requires,
Cautious to at what thought mature infpires.
If one man's blood, though mean, diftain our hands,
The homicide retreats to foreign lands;
By us, in heaps th' illuftrious peerage falls,
Th' Important deed our whole attention calls.
Be that thy care, Telemachus replies,
The world confpires to fpeak Ulyffes wife;
For wildom all is thine! lo, I obey,
And dauntless follow where you lead the way;
Nor falt thou in the day of danger find
Thy coward fon degen rate lag behind.

125

Then inftant to the bath (the monarch cries) Bid the gay youth ad fprightly virgins rie, 131 Thence all defcend in pomp and proud array, And bid the dome refound the mirthful lay; While the fwift lyrift airs of rapture fings, And forms the dance refponfive to the ftrings. 135 That herce th' eluded paffengers may fay, Lo! the queen weds! we hear the spousal lay! The fuiters' death unknown, till we remove I ar from the court, and act infspired by Jove. Thus spoke the king: th' obfervant train obey, At once they bathe, and drefs in proud array: 141 The rift ftrikes the ftring: gay youths advance, And fair-zon'd damfels form the sprightly dance.

The voice attun'd to inftrumental founds,
Afcends the root; the vaulted roof rebounds; 145
Not u obferv'd: the Greeks eluded fay
Lo! the queer weds! we hear the fpoufal lay!
Inconftant! to adinit the bridal hour.
Thus they--but nobly chatte the weds no more.
Mean while the weary'd king the bath a cends;
With faithful cares Euryromè attends,
O'er every limb a fhower of fragrance feds:
Then, drefs'd in pomp, magnificent he treads.
The Warrior-Godde is gives his frame to fhine
With maiety enlarg'd, and grace divine. 155
Back from his brows in wavy ringlets y
His thick large locks of hyacinthine dye.
As by fome artit, to whom Vulcan gives
His heavenly fill, a breathing image lives;
By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,
And the pale filver glows with fufle gold: 161
So Pailas his heroic ferm improves
With bloom divine, and like a God he moves;
More high he treads, and iffuing forth in late,
Radiant before his gazing confort fate. 165
And, O my queen he cries, what power above
Has fteel'd that heart averfe to fpoufal love!
Canft thou, Penelope, when heaven reftores
Thy loft Ulyffes to his native frores,
Canft thou, oh cruel! unconcern'd furvey
Thy loft Ulyffes, on this i gnal day?
Hafte, Euriclea, and dispatchful fpread
For me, and me alone, th' iurperial bed:
My weary nature craves the balm of reft:
But Heaven with adamant has arm'd her breaft,
Ah! no; the cries, a tender heart I bear, 176
A foe to pride; no adamant is there;
And now, ev'n now it melts! for ure I fee
Once more Ulyffes, my belov'd in thee!
Fix'd in my foul as when he fail'd to Troy, 180
His image dwells: then hafte the bed of joy!
Hafte, from the bridal bower the bed tranflate,
Fram'd by his hand, and be it drefs'd in ftate!

170

Thus fpeaks the queen, still dubious, with dis

guife;

Touch'd at her words, the king with warmth replies :
Alas, for this! what mortal ftrength can move 185
The enormous burthen, who but Heaven above?
It mocks the weak attempts of human hands;
But the whole earth muft move, if Heaven com-
mands.

Then har fure evidence, while we display 190
Words feal'd with facred truth, and truth obey:
This hand the wonder-fram'd; an olive spread
Full in the court its ever verdant head.
Vaft as fome mighty column's bulk, on high
The huge trunk rofe, and heav'd into the sky; 195
Around the tree I rais'd a nuptial bower,
And roof'd defenfive of the ftorm and fhower;
The spacious valve, with art inwrought, conjoins;
And the fair dome with polith'd marble shines.
I lopp'd the branchy head; aloft in twain
Sever'd the bole, and smooth'd the shining grain ;
Then pofts, capacious of the frame, I raife,
And bore it, regular, from fpace to space:
Athwart the frame, at equal distance, lie 204
Thongs of tough hides, that boaft a purple dye;
Then, polifhing the whole, the finish'd mould
With filver fhone, with elephant, and gold,

200